A musical variety show that aired on NBC from 1959 to 1968, the Bell Telephone Hour showcased the best in Broadway, classical, jazz, and popular music each week. Drawn from the entire run of the series, this impressive collection features Grant Johannesen in Gershwin's Concerto in F and Grieg's Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16 (first movement); Claudio Arrau in the third movement of Beethoven's "Emperor"; Van Cliburn in Schumann's Widmung; John Browning in Brahms' Concerto No. 1 (third movement); Robert Casadesus in the Appassionata's third movement and Bach's Concerto for 3 Pianos in D (third movement), with Gaby and Jean Casadesus; José Iturbi in Falla's Ritual Fire Dance and Liszt's Hungarian Fantasy; and more.

"Here is Paul Whiteman conducting Rhapsody in Blue 37 years after giving its premiere … with Jorge Bolet as soloist in a work he never recorded commercially. Philippe Entremont and the forgotten prodigy Lorin Hollander (here aged 15) both thrill in Saint-Saëns, but the disc is alone worth buying to see/hear Byron Janis in Rachmaninov … and Prokofiev—a truly wonderful display of nonchalant bravura."—BBC Music